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Worf
Skills Klingon Physiology Klingon anatomy has often been considered “overdesigned” due to the amount of redundant organs Klingons possess: twenty-three ribs, two livers, an eight-chambered heart, three lungs, backups for neural functions, etc.. Klingons refer to it as the brak’lul, where almost every vital organ in their body has a built-in redundancy in case any primary organ or system fails. The brak’lul is often attributed as the reason Klingons have more stamina and endurance than humans, and why they are often considered to be superior in strength. However exaggerated their strength may be, Worf once stood his ground against thirteen Jem’Hadar in unarmed combat, and kept fighting despite severe injuries that brought him close to death. Despite their famed endurance, Klingons have a low tolerance for the cold. Additionally, Worf dislikes zero-gravity because it makes him sick to his stomach. Combat Skills Worf, being an expert in hand-to-hand combat, trains constantly to keep himself in peak physical condition. His favourite exercise is the mok’bara, a form of Klingon martial arts that is similar to tai chi chuan. He also uses a Klingon calisthenics programme which involves facing holographic (yet very solid) opponents. He is also proficient with a number of weapons, ranging from Klingon blades and swords, to Starfleet-issued hand phasers and rifles. His weapon of choice is the mek’leth (a small, sword-like weapon around 30-35 cm long) but he is also a master of the bat’leth (a large, sword-like weapon wielded with two hands around 115 cm long), the traditional Klingon “sword of honour”. He even won Champion Standing at a bat’leth competition once. Hand phasers are often hard to handle due to their small size, but Worf’s aim is excellent with the phaser rifle, and quite good when using missile launchers or other long-ranged weaponry. Essentially, if he is given a gun, sooner or later he’ll know how to shoot with it. He has also handled the weapons systems on both the Enterprise and the Defiant, and even the Rotarran on one occasion. Other Worf’s knowledge in other areas varies depending on his Starfleet training and general experience. He knows basic first aid, has limited engineering skills, and is excellent in tactics. Like all Klingons, he is a good hunter, with a keen sense of smell. He can also swim, though he isn’t very fond of it. However, despite all his self-control, he cannot help but let his anger get the best of him at times. Klingons are quite emotional, and, if provoked, Worf won’t hesitate to get into a fight. He isn’t a very good liar, either. But he is an honest, straightforward individual, whose loyalty cannot be bought—only earned. Personality Worf is a complex individual. On the outside, he displays little emotion. The deliberation with which he speaks can make him seem aloof and humourless—in fact, he rarely ever smiles, jokes, or laughs. He is often considered a paragon of Klingon honour and discipline, but when it comes to the Klingon passion for life, the exuberance, the enjoyment of the moment, he constantly holds himself back. Not because he doesn’t feel, but possibly because he feels too much. Ever since a childhood accident, he has always strived to hold his emotions in check for fear of hurting those closest to him. His self-discipline, thus, became his lifestyle. Like all Klingons, Worf places a heavy emphasis on honour. Honour and duty are everything to him—even more so after losing Jadzia. His bravery is unquestionable, as is his daring, which can sometimes seem foolhardy to those who don’t know him well, but always honourable compared to Klingon standards. Sometimes, he may seem overeager to engage in battle, but he nevertheless keeps his bloodlust (a Klingon trait) in check. But there are times when he lets his emotions get the better of him, anger being the primary culprit. He can hold himself in check when insulted, but only up to a point; if he is called a “coward” with malicious intent, or if someone he cares about is being insulted, he doesn’t hesitate to prove his adversary wrong by resorting to physical violence. Looking at Worf, one wouldn’t guess he is a spiritual man who places a great personal emphasis on faith, but he does. He prays to Kahless often, and clung to his faith even when he felt he had lost it. He holds a deep fascination for his Klingon heritage and tradition, possibly due to being raised amongst humans. He enjoys Klingon tales and legends, and songs of warriors’ deeds. He’s also fond of Klingon cuisine, like live gagh and rokeg blood pie, but doesn’t mind eating human foods, either; his favourite drink is prune juice. He is also a very private individual and values his personal space. He dislikes social gatherings, formal functions, and his privacy being invaded. But at heart, he is a caring, gentle and romantic individual. Jadzia once remarked he had “the soul of a poet”, perhaps as a testimony to his love of Klingon opera and poetry, which he is rather shy about. He also has some sense of humour—though not enough compared to the average human and Klingon. Worf rarely boasts; he is humble, but proud, of his achievements. He also rarely indulges or relaxes (except when it comes to training, prune juice and listening to Klingon opera at 82 decibels when alone) and as a result can oftentimes appear stiff-necked to those who don’t know him well. In fact, even his closest friends admit he is a difficult man to get along with. Tight-lipped, stubborn and single-minded are but some of the adjectives they have used to describe him over the years. But if you take the time to get to know him, Worf proves to be a loyal companion. Appearance Worf’s presence is imposing, not only because of his build and height of 6’3’’, but also because of his stern, no-nonsense demeanour. He rarely smiles, let alone laughs, and his default facial expression is always one of seriousness. His voice is a deep baritone and varies little in pitch, but manages not to be monotone. Like all Klingons his skull, chest, spine and feet sport ridges, with the crest on his forehead considered a “trademark” Klingon trait to outsiders. He is dark-skinned, has long, brown hair he usually keeps tied in a ponytail, and has maintained a goatee and moustache for years. His scent has been described as “earthy”, “peaty” and “with a touch of lilac”. (The latter possibly said as a joke, but one never knows with Klingons.) Worf’s attire of choice is his Starfleet uniform, accompanied by a Klingon baldric over his right shoulder that displays the symbol of the House of Martok. His preferred hand-to-hand weapon is the mek’leth, which he keeps concealed behind his back on his baldric. A fact not known to many is a scar he has had since he was six, when a wild animal mauled his arm. Relationships History Early Life Worf was born on December 9, 2340 on the Klingon homeworld Qo’noS. When he was five, his father, Mogh, took their family to Khitomer. Unfortunately, the colony was attacked the next year by Romulans, resulting in nearly 4,000 colonists’ deaths. Sergey Rozhenko, a chief petty officer aboard a Federation starship that answered the colony’s distress call, found Worf buried beneath the rubble, and decided to adopt him. In the years that followed, Worf grew up with the Rozhenko family on Gault. Initially, he found it difficult to adapt to a human lifestyle and temper his Klingon impulses, but an accident when he was thirteen showed him how truly fragile humans were. While playing soccer, Worf collided with another player, and the impact of Worf’s skull against the human boy’s broke the boy’s neck. From that day forward, Worf practiced restraint, which paved the way for the man he is today. After they moved to Earth, Worf was given the opportunity to visit some cousins of his on Qo’noS. Despite their dislike of his “human taint”, he underwent the Rite of Ascension to become a Klingon warrior. He also underwent the Rite of MajQa and saw a vision of Kahless (the most revered mytho-historical figure in Klingon culture) who told him he would do what no other Klingon had done. After he returned to Earth, he and his adoptive brother, Nikolai, joined Starfleet Academy in 2357. Whereas Nikolai left a year later, Worf kept at it until he graduated in 2361, becoming the first Klingon to ever serve in Starfleet. (And thus potentially fulfilling Kahless’ prophecy.) Life on the Enterprise In 2364, Worf was assigned to the Enterprise as a command division bridge officer under Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Later that year, he was made the acting security chief following the death of Natasha Yar. In 2365, he was promoted to lieutenant, transferred to the operations division, and became the permanent Chief of Security. During this time, he became reacquainted with an old flame from his Academy years, a Klingon-Human ambassador by the name of K’Ehleyr. Despite their feelings for each other, they had opposing views about Klingon tradition. K’Ehleyr didn’t want to give up on her career to settle down with him after bonding, as tradition decreed, whereas Worf felt it would be dishonourable to do otherwise. They eventually parted ways with the hope they would meet again. For the next several years, Worf became a key figure in Klingon politics. He was reunited with his younger brother, Kurn, and learned that his biological father, Mogh, was accused of betraying the Klingon Empire to the Romulans. It turned out Mogh was innocent and Duras’ father was the one responsible for the Khitomer massacre. However, in order to keep the Empire’s political structure from collapsing, Worf let his family name take the blame and was stripped of his honour. In 2367, the Klingon Empire required Picard’s services in selecting the new Chancellor. Worf was reunited with K’Ehleyr and discovered that she had borne him a son, Alexander. Whereas K’Ehleyr now felt she was ready for marriage, Worf was the one to back down, not wanting her and his son to suffer his dishonour. Determined to discover why Worf didn’t want to tell her of the circumstances surrounding his discommendation, K’Ehleyr dug too deep into restricted files; as a result, Duras murdered her. Distraught, Worf employed the Right of Vengeance, killing Duras in combat. His demise resulted in the other candidate, Gowron, being elected instead. While Worf’s actions were considered lawful in Klingon culture, he received a formal reprimand in his Starfleet file. Not prepared to care for a child on a starship, and the loss of K’Ehleyr still fresh in his mind, Worf sent Alexander to live with the Rozhenkos on Earth. A few months later, Duras’ sisters began to rally Klingons to rise up against Gowron. Worf temporarily left the Enterprise to fight in the civil war with his brother, siding with Gowron. Picard and the rest of the crew discovered the sisters had turned to Romulans for support; in response, the Federation created a blockade of starships to prevent the Romulans from aiding the sisters, thus ensuring Gowron’s instalment as the Chancellor. In thanks, Gowron restored Worf’s honour, and Worf took his rightful place back on the Enterprise in 2368. Shortly afterward, Worf was reunited with his son. But tensions between them were high; in vain, Worf tried to teach Alexander the values of being a Klingon warrior, whereas Alexander only wanted Worf’s love and attention. Counsellor Deanna Troi would help the two of them slowly reconcile their differences in the months to come. Unfortunately, later that year, Worf suffered an accident that left him paralysed. In true Klingon fashion, he was prepared to undergo the suicide rite, the hegh’bat, but his crewmates talked him out of it, reminding him that it would have a huge impact on Alexander. Instead, he risked going through an experimental surgical procedure which would have failed if it hadn’t been for his redundant synaptic functions. He soon made a full recovery and returned to active duty. Life soon returned to normal. However, in 2369, while the Enterprise was visiting Deep Space 9, an information broker told Worf that his father was still alive on Carraya IV. After investigating the planet, Worf found Klingon survivors of the Khitomer massacre living in peace with their Romulan captors, but his father had died before capture and was not among them. The younger Klingons had never been told of their heritage, so Worf taught them the way of the warrior, encouraging some to visit Qo’noS. However, the event left him with a crisis of faith; a few months later, he travelled to the monastery on Boreth, seeking to reconnect with his spiritual side. While trying to experience a vision of Kahless, he encountered a clone of Kahless instead, who had been created by the monks in order to put an end to the strife in the Empire. Despite Worf’s disapproval, he persuaded Gowron to take Kahless on as a spiritual leader to help solidify his political position and prevent more civil wars from breaking out. In 2370, due to a quantum anomaly, Worf found himself slipping constantly through parallel dimensions and living out versions of his life that had played out differently. In one dimension, he was even married to Deanna Troi; upon his return, it gave him the incentive to start pursuing her, but they only dated for a few weeks and decided to remain friends instead. He also had a run-in with a future version of his son, who had been so distraught at Worf’s death in his timeline he’d returned to the past to try to encourage his younger self to become a warrior instead of an ambassador. This encounter, however, proved to Worf that he had to let his son find his own path, even if that path would not be the warrior’s path. Life on Deep Space 9 After his promotion to lieutenant commander in 2371 and the destruction of the Enterprise, Worf sent Alexander to live with the Rozhenkos and took an extended leave from Starfleet to return to Boreth, seeking spiritual guidance after yet another loss. It was during this time, in early 2372, that Klingon-Federation relations deteriorated and Captain Benjamin Sisko requested Worf’s presence at Deep Space 9. It was Sisko’s hope that Worf could reason with Gowron, but despite his intervention, Gowron was determined to invade Cardassia. Furthermore, Worf’s refusal to join the Empire resulted in Gowron stripping him and his family of their honour and lands, branding them traitors. Worf had considered resigning during his stay on Boreth, but it was only after his encounter with Gowron he wanted to go through with it, deeming his Starfleet career a disgrace to his people. However, realising Worf was still depressed over the Enterprise’s destruction and believing it was influencing his decision to resign, Sisko offered Worf a position as the strategic operations officer on DS9, which Worf eventually accepted. Worf found it difficult to acclimatise to life on the station. Deep Space 9 was nothing like living on a starship. Unwittingly, he found himself spending most of his off-duty time with Miles O’Brien, an old crewmate from the Enterprise, and Jadzia Dax, a Trill who held a deep appreciation for Klingons. Despite this, Worf continued to be unhappy, and eventually made his home on DS9’s starship, the Defiant, in an effort to find refuge from the station’s chaos. The next few months produced a flurry of issues for Worf, mostly of a Klingon nature: his brother, Kurn, dishonoured by his elder brother’s actions, had sought him out to be killed by his hand; Worf stood accused of killing 441 Klingon citizens when a freighter wandered into a battle zone that was proven to be a set-up; and he helped in exposing Gowron’s second-in-command, Martok, as an operative of the Dominion, a Changeling. Nothing he did, however, restored his honour. Perhaps the only highlight of those times was briefly reuniting with the crew on the Enterprise during the Borg invasion while he was in command of the Defiant—as well as he and Jadzia starting a relationship together. In 2373, Worf and Garak were captured by the Dominion. There, they discovered the real Martok, who had been incarcerated for nearly two years, and Julian Bashir, DS9’s Chief Medical Officer, who had been captured two months prior and replaced with a Changeling. While Garak worked on a way to transport them back to their runabout, Worf served as a distraction; his task was to fight against Jem’Hadar soldiers in daily unarmed combat. Despite being a gruelling task, and one that wore him down day after day, he endured, winning twelve consecutive matches. By the thirteenth match against a Jem’Hadar Elder, Worf was close to his limit, with several broken bones and barely being able to stand. But he refused to surrender, instead preferring to die honourably. Surprisingly, the Jem’Hadar yielded instead in deference to Worf’s courage, which resulted in his execution by the other Jem’Hadar. Worf would have been killed too, if it hadn’t been for Garak succeeding in transporting them all to the runabout at that instant. Unfortunately, despite their successful escape and warning DS9 of the Bashir-Changeling successfully, the Dominion invaded the Alpha Quadrant, already gaining a foothold by allying with the Cardassians. Worf aided Martok in reacquainting himself with fighting tactics when he intially took command of the Rotarran, a Klingon bird-of-prey. Martok had previously made Worf a member of his House in gratitude for his aid, and trusted no one else by his side. Therefore, on the Rotarran’s first run, Worf served as Martok’s First Officer and Jadzia served as the Science Officer. They both helped Martok and the Rotarran’s crew regain their morale and confidence against the Dominion forces. However, when DS9 was later on attacked and taken over, they were all forced to evacuate. Worf joined Martok on the Rotarran again, without knowing when he would be reunited with the others. The following months brought Worf back in contact with Jadzia and the other Starfleet officers at scattered intervals. By then, their relationship had developed to the point where they had decided to marry after the war with the Dominion was over; Worf fussed over the preparations whenever he had free time, often driving Martok up the wall. To further add to Worf’s stress, one of the crew replacements that showed up on the Rotarran happened to be his son, Alexander, who had joined the war effort both in an effort to impress his father and to prove himself. Despite Alexander’s weak fighting skills and initially being taunted by the crew, he proved his worth and was also admitted into the House of Martok. After successfully taking back Deep Space 9, Worf and Jadzia decided to change the date of the wedding to include Alexander in the ceremony as their Tawi’Yan (swordbearer) before he was transferred to another Klingon warship. After some dire complications were resolved, Jadzia and Worf were happily married in traditional Klingon style, and Jadzia was accepted into the House of Martok, in 2374. More skirmishes with the Dominion followed. Once, Worf and Jadzia had tried to retrieve a Cardassian spy who had invaluable information. Unfortunately, Jadzia was mortally wounded, and, for the first time, Worf abandoned his duty to return her to DS9 in time to be saved. The result was the spy’s demise and Worf’s career; he would never rise above his rank of lieutenant commander. But he assured Jadzia that, if he were faced with the same circumstances again, he would repeat his actions. Unfortunately, a few months later, just as they had planned to attempt parenthood, Jadzia was murdered by Dukat, marking the end to their two-year involvement. Worf was deeply affected by the loss, but stoically avoided talking about it with the others. He worried that Jadzia hadn’t gone to Sto-Vo-Kor, the Klingon afterlife reserved for warriors, due to her being murdered instead of dying in combat. He couldn’t even enact the Right of Vengeance, for Dukat had disappeared without a trace. Therefore, Martok, O’Brien, Bashir and Quark aided Worf in gaining a victory in Jadzia’s memory against the Dominion, which would ensure her place in Sto-Vo-Kor and helped ease Worf’s turbulent feelings. Another encounter with the crew of the Enterprise potentially helped, but Worf avoided speaking of Jadzia or his life on DS9. The arrival of Ezri Dax in 2375, the next host for the Dax symbiont, made matters worse. Initially, Worf didn’t want to have anything to do with her. It was difficult for him to reconcile with Jadzia’s death knowing she was still “alive” through Ezri. It wasn’t until Worf went missing in combat after the destruction of the Rotarran and Ezri being the one to find his escape pod were they forced to discuss matters. One thing led to another, and after a brief romantic stint they were captured by the Breen, then turned over to the Dominion. Their capture together, however, revealed both Ezri’s underlying romantic feelings for Bashir and Worf realizing he’d tried to find Jadzia in Ezri. They both agreed that their involvement was a mistake, but resolved to be “friends, and more”. Damar, the Cardassian leader, defected and helped the two escape and return to DS9, where they warned Sisko of the Breen’s involvement with the Dominion. While preparations were made to end the war with a final offensive, Worf realized that Gowron was foolishly throwing lives away in pointless skirmishes to make Martok look bad. After failing to persuade Martok to challenge Gowron, Worf took it upon himself to do so, and wound up killing Gowron in combat—which meant, by every right, Worf was the new Chancellor. He turned the offer down, however, and made Martok the Chancellor instead. When the war was finally won, Worf was asked to become the Federation Ambassador to Qo’noS. He accepted the position and left Deep Space 9. However, while on his way, he was restrained by black cords that dragged him through the ship’s hull—and so, he wound up in Pandora. Pandora History *Arrives January 1, Year 2.